Recently, there has been a ton of networking conferences, informational seminars and webinars dedicated to showing you how you can grow your business by marketing through social media. I have also read countless blogs, articles, and materials on how to have a successful social media presence through Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, as well as other online social media sites. Experts in the field are quick to tell you how to improve your visibility and audience, and offer you "tips and tricks" that will keep people interested in your business. However, while many of these experts are giving you good advice, it often becomes like a radio station that plays a lot of songs, but with the same melody! You find yourself reading an unending conversation about the same thing, with the same message. My advice: Stop the lunacy! Meaning, stop confusing yourself and concentrate on making your social media presence known to the right audience, which may not necessarily be the largest audience. Additionally, when blogging or writing articles, keep your message simple and relevant, no matter which social media vehicles you use.

It is certain that I am marketing my business through social media more than ever, as I realize that this is indeed the 21st century. It is best for all to embrace this way of communication with open hearts and minds. But I am also certain that we must take a common sense approach to getting our name and message out there!

Below are some no-nonsense suggestions to marketing through social media, which can help you decide which sites you will use - in addition to the ones you are currently using - before the madness gets more maddening. I hope that these ideas will help you keep it simple so that you can focus on making your message relevant and clear:

1. You Don't Need to Sign Up With A Gazillion Social Media Sites at Once: On a personal note, many people have suggested to me that I sign up with a multitude of social media sites at once, which has been a major bone of contention for me. Not only was I told to open accounts with some of the most popular social media sites today - Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter - but to also link my website blogs through those social media sites, sign up with Google+, create a You Tube channel (yes, that too...), and then sign up with websites that check if I am relevant to the social media world such as Klout, Crowdbooster, and others. I was told these sites and barometers are imperative to building my audience and client base, and to try more social media marketing sites if needed; the more, the merrier, right?!?! SOCIAL MEDIA OVERLOAD, social media overload...does not compute, does not compute! Enough already! I soon discovered that all of that was too much for me to do at once and that I may not have needed as much as I signed up for. When you are determining the best social media sites you want to use, first determine who you wish to reach, and whether or not the sites you signed up with will reach as many people as you need them to. For example, LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+ and Twitter are all great sources for finding business networking opportunities; I'm just saying that signing up with all of them at once (unless you have a marketing team to assist you) may be a bit much at the start. Also, since you can link most of your accounts together to see your blogs from any of them, make sure to choose wisely. Opening up too many social media accounts at once will make you crazy, frustrated, and too overwhelmed to keep up with any of them. Remember: Keep it simple! Start with only a few, then as your audience and client list grows, seriously ask yourself whether you really need any more social media sites to get your name and message out there.

(For Part II of this blog, I will discuss (1) zeroing in on the kinds of marketing messages you want to send; and (2) writing about things that are important to you and your business.)